Revenue collection grows by 21% in Assam

State finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said the state was able to register a growth of 21.6% in revenue collection during 2016-17, before the BJP-led government completed even a year in power.
“The state’s total revenue collection in 2016-17 was Rs 15,620 crore against Rs 12, 848 crore in 2015-16. That means we collected Rs 2,772 crore more revenue than 2015-16. This 21.6% growth in revenue collection is one of the highest among states in the country,” Sarma said here.
The finance minister attributed this growth to better management of financial resources and a crackdown on tax evasion. “We could achieve this growth because of our financial prudence even if we did not get one full year in the last fiscal,” he added, in a not-so-veiled jibe at the previous Congress government.
“Our plan and non-plan expenditure has far excelled that during the Congress government’s time. Our total expenditure was pegged at Rs 53,561.61 crore in 2016-17. In 2015-16, it was Rs 39,804.95 crore. The expenditure figures indicated that there has been an increase of 34.56 % over 2015-16,” Sarma said. Of the total expenditure, he added, Rs 43,000 crore was digitally disbursed to different departments. “In 2015-16, the amount disbursed digitally was Rs 33, 357 crore. Increase in digital disbursement in our time has given a fillip to the expansion of digital transaction in the state,” he added.
The finance minister was, however, sceptical if the high rate of revenue growth could be sustained once the Goods and Services Tax regime kicks in from July 1.
“We all know GST will be implemented from this financial year. It is difficult to say right now what kind of tax collection, especially sales tax collection, can be expected after that. But I am optimistic we will maintain a collection rate of 19-20%. This confidence primarily stems from the fact that since our government came to power, we have been able to plug the all the leakages in tax collection. We are also confident of maintaining the momentum of expenditure we have gained right now,” Sarma said.